Re: Points, was Re: grav

--- Oerjan Ohlson <oerjan.ohlson@telia.com> wrote:

> I design my points systems as tools for balancing
> scenarios, which means > that they attempt to
measure how useful a vehicle is> on the gaming table.
A > vehicle which has a smaller signature than an
> otherwise identical vehicle > (same armament, same
mobility, same armour etc.) is> more useful on the 
> gaming table than that other vehicle, because the
> smaller signature means > that the enemy has a
harder time hitting it so it> survives correspondingly

> longer. More useful on the gaming table means a
> higher points cost.

Is that necessarily true?  Under DSII rules, a
vehicle's signature has no effect vs. artillery, which
is what I generally use to kill off swarms of annoying
Size 1 vehicles with GMS.  On a simillar note,
ablative armor is tremedously useful in fighting
HEL-using factions, but extra useless weight when
fighting troops armed with HKPs.  GMSs are incredibly
effective weapons--until you have to try to fight it
out with infantry.  My point in saying this is to say
that any points cost is necessarily going to be
unbalanced in certain situations.  Too many variables
to keep track of.  If you restrict your analysis to
"how is it affected by direct fire weapons" then you
could come up with a 100% accurate solution, but once
you introduce combined arms into the equation, you no
longer have anything but rough guidelines.  Is a
300-point grav tank going to be equal in value on the
battlefield to 300 points of infantry?	The answer is
simply "Depends on what you want to do."

>  >It was balanced towards marginally capable
> vehicles
>  >and/or vehicles with glaring design flaws.
> 
> Such as? Well, "any walker" to begin with, but apart
> from that?

I really don't want to get into specifics without the
design system in front of me.  I think Don has a
copy--I'll get back to you on this.

> Unless of course their *real-world manufacturing or
> procurement cost* was > so much lower than that of
their rivals that the > rivals simply couldn't 
> compete :-) Like, eg., Sweden's purchase of several
> hundred ex-DDR BMP-1s > and MT-LBs...

You only make that sort of purchase because you don't
actually intend to fight a war.  

John

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